High-Availability File Transfers with SFTPPlus MFT Cluster
SFTPPlus MFT allows you to implement a clustered file transfer solution that is reliable, scalable, and cloud-ready, all without complex setup and accommodating your preferred operating system, including Windows Server, Linux or macOS.
This post describes how to implement a clustered deployment of SFTPPlus MFT across VMs, containers, or Kubernetes, backed by any load balancer of your choice.
What Is SFTPPlus MFT Cluster Mode?
At its core, an SFTPPlus MFT clustered solution involves deploying multiple SFTPPlus MFT instances across different virtual machines (VMs), containers, or even within a Kubernetes environment. This multi-node setup is placed behind a load balancer, which intelligently distributes incoming file transfer traffic across the available nodes.
SFTPPlus MFT is a managed file transfer platform that supports:
- Multiple deployment targets: VMs, Docker containers, Kubernetes pods
- Automatic configuration sync between nodes
- Centralized configuration management via a primary node
- Secure file transfers via SFTP, FTPS, HTTPS, WebDAV, AS2, and REST API
- Post-transfer automation like archiving or remote forwarding
🧱 Cluster Deployment: Simple & Flexible
Deploying a cluster with SFTPPlus MFT is straightforward. You can:
- Spin up VMs or containers in your private data center 🏢
- Launch cloud-native instances on AWS, Azure, or GCP ☁️
- Deploy in Kubernetes clusters for horizontal scaling ⚙️
Each node in the cluster receives a full synchronized copy of the configuration, maintained by the designated primary VM. Even if the primary goes offline, the rest of the cluster continues to operate and handle file transfers as usual. The configuration is persisted on each node and is available even after a restart.
⚙️ Load Balancer Compatibility
SFTPPlus MFT is agnostic to the load balancing technology you use. Whether you have an on-premise hardware load balancer or you're using cloud-native load balancers, SFTPPlus MFT integrates seamlessly. Even simple TCP network load balancers are supported, providing you with a wide range of options to fit your existing infrastructure.
You can use any load balancer to route incoming traffic to the SFTPPlus MFT cluster:
- On-premise: F5, Fortinet, NetScaler, ZScaler
- Open Source: HAProxy, Traefik, Nginx
- Cloud: AWS ALB/NLB, Azure Application Gateway, Google Cloud Load Balancer
- TCP-level: Any basic TCP port forwarding network tool
Just point your load balancer to the port listener on each VM/container, and it will distribute traffic automatically across healthy nodes.
The load balancer doesn't depend on the primary node, so there is no single point of failure.
🔐 Configuration Management & Infra-as-Code
The SFTPPlus MFT configuration itself is stored in a straightforward .INI text file format. This makes it easy to manage and version control. More importantly, it allows for integration with popular infrastructure as code (IaC) so that you can automate deployment and scaling using:
- Ansible
- Chef
- Terraform
- Docker Compose or Helm for container clusters
Whether you're pushing updates or provisioning nodes from scratch, configuration can be scripted, templated, and replicated with precision, ensuring consistency and repeatability across your environments.
Post-Transfer Automation & Rules
Once a file is transferred, SFTPPlus MFT can immediately trigger custom processing rules, such as:
- 📦 Archiving the file to a specified directory
- ☁️ Uploading the file to remote or cloud storage (S3, Azure Blob, FTP servers, etc.)
- 🧠 Calling custom scripts or REST APIs for data transformation
- 📨 Sending notifications or logs to external systems
These actions are defined in the configuration and executed cluster-wide, so any node can handle automation reliably.
Server-Side & Client-Side Transfers
SFTPPlus MFT isn't just a simple file server. It has advanced file transfer capabilities:
- 🔁 Client-side transfers: Initiate file uploads/downloads to/from external systems
- 🌉 Server-side relays: Move files between two remote servers without saving them locally (zero-disk-hop transfers)
This makes it perfect for building gateway systems, cloud ingest pipelines, and automated B2B file routing solutions.
Enterprise Logging & SIEM Integration
Every file transfer action, success, failure, and system event is logged in real time. Logs can be:
- 📤 Streamed to a centralized syslog server
- 📦 Integrated with SIEM tools like Splunk, ELK Stack, QRadar, or Sumo Logic
- 🔍 Used for auditing, troubleshooting, and compliance
This gives your ops and security teams end-to-end visibility across the entire MFT cluster.
Get support from experts
Looking to modernize your file transfer infrastructure?
SFTPPlus MFT gives you a flexible, cluster-aware platform ready for automation, cloud-native deployment, and enterprise compliance.
👉 Get started with a pilot deployment today and get in touch with our dedicated support team for integration examples with your preferred stack.